Big thanks to @kairosphotographyhull for these wonderful images of the Hessle Ceilidh Band at play. So if you are planning a celebration? A ceilidh sometimes called a barn dance is a great way to get your friends and family together and have a really great time. Ideal for birthdays, weddings, engagements, retirements and community events The Hessle Ceilidh Band are East Yorkshire’s busiest ceilidh band. Call Quentin on 07877434739 to make a booking.
Here we have a rather lovely set of images from a very special silver wedding celebration in Kirkella. The photos were taken by award winning photographer Rich Dufy-Howard they give an insight into the fun, excitement and energy a Hessle Ceilidh Band performance generates – at the bottom of the post you can read the thank you letter we received after the gig. You can see more of Rich’s work at richarddh.com
Dear All in the Hessle Ceilidh Band, Thank you so much for the excellent entertainment you provided for our Silver Wedding celebration. Everyone had such an enjoyable evening. We were very impressed by your musical ability and the calling for the dances was very clear. The dances were a good mix suitable for young and older guests, from being swung round in a basket to a more sedate pat-a-cake polka! Many of our guests commented on how much fun the evening was and I would thoroughly recommend you to anyone who wants a lively and entertaining party. Best wishes, Suzanne To book the Hessle Ceilidh Band email hessleceilidhband@yahoo.co.uk or ring Quentin on 07877434739.
Great news the Queen is having a party and we’re all invited – to mark 60 years of The Queen’s reign the Diamond Jubilee will take place in 2012. the celebrations will centre around an extended weekend in 2012 on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June.
What better way to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee than a right royal yorkshire knees up with the Hessle Ceilidh Band we are already playing on Saturday 2nd June – Jubilee Community Ceilidh, Wistow Village Hall, East Yorkshire but we are trying to play on all 4 days in our own special musical celebration of the Diamond Jubilee – so if you want to organise a community dance, celebration or party just get in touch – we’re mad for it !
We played for a silver wedding anniversary at Beverley Race Course last night – the acoustics in the function room were fantastic as was the food – a big ‘hats off’ to the pecan fried sausages – delicious – Plenty of enthusiastic dancers and a great time was had by all – the Bavarian Hand clapping dance went down a storm as did strip the willow – On behalf of the band I’d like to wish Iain and Sue a very Happy Silver Wedding Anniversary.
We had a chartiy ceilidh last weekend to raise money for Matthew Kitchen who is running the London Marathon this year in aid of Asthma UK. Well it wasn’t strictly Hessle Ceilidh Band as such, as Phill and Emma played as well the fabulous Liam Robinson, Francis Kelly and Tim walker all the way from Lincoln.
Emma did a grand job calling the dances (first time calling) with Reg Stones calling a couple of dances too. We raised £150 for Asmatha UK and a good time was had by all.
We are unashamedly advertising this Ceilidh supporting Matthew Kitchen, running the London Marathon, raising money for Asthma UK.
Come along, have a good knees up and enjoy dancing!!
Saturday 19th March – “Marathon Matt’s” – Asthama Uk Community Charity Ceildih
at Hessle All Saints Church Hall, Hessle, East Yorshire
Contact Emma on – 07828 646671 or Pippa on 07891 590111
Not strictly a Hessle Ceilidh Band Bash (as lots of musicians involved- the more the merrier!)
but a great cause and FAB community ceilidh to come to, bring own booze and nibbles!
see the Facebook event page or contact us for tickets
£7 a per person or £20 family ticket for 4 – a luscious Pie and Pea supper included!
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the fundraising ceilidh we held last month. We raised £25o for a group visiting the Beamsley Project for disabled people – a good night was had by all! A BIG thanks to Ann Wilkinson too who helped organise this.
Rob, Angela, Sean, Mark and Heather all helped out filling in spots between dances, which gave us other musicians a break (thanks) and Rob sported a lederhosen to one of Steve’s very authentic and original Bavarian folk dance, “Puffensqeezenlederhosen“, which involves some level of co-ordination of slapping, clapping and dancing in the style of Basil Fawlty…
A busy few weeks ahead with some band members sitting exams (!), local ceilidhs, some of us going to folk festivals and local events playing for local morris dance sides and pipe band events. All seriously good fun.
Next community ceilidh to be on or around October 16th for Big National Ceilidh an event supporting WaterAid – please do come and support – details to follow.
We are having a…
All Saints Church Hall, Hessle, Hull
£5 per adult/£12 family ticket. No bar – bring own food and drink/booze. A great ‘knees up’ night out with friends and family, no age restrictions – you just need two working legs!
Proceeds to local community projects. Please contact us for tickets.
Some of us played for a ceilidh last Friday 27th March, at All Saints Hall in Hessle, raising money for a group visiting the Beamsley Project for disabled people.
There were over 100 people there dancing with callers Steve Haswell and Rob Nicklas, respectively on melodion and guitar/vocals and with Angela on flute playing along with Rob’s vocals.
The stage was full of musicians too – so thanks to Heather, Hannah, Angela, Rob, Steve, Gordon, Jill and Colin for making a good sound (and thanks to Rob also for the PA).
The night raised £350.
A big thank you to all that came, enjoyed and contributed and especially to Anne Wilkinson who organsied it all!
A massive thank you to all that came to the ceilidh and merrily danced the night away supporting the charity WaterAid as part of the Big National Ceilidh day event. We all had a fab time and really enjoyed the night!
We had 134 (give or take 1 or 2) people dancing at 10pm to the Circassian Circle dance and the night raised £670 for WaterAid!!! Here are a few photos of the night…
This is unashamed advertising for our fund raising community charity ceilidh at
We did a ceilidh barn dance, in a barn, last Saturday night. Luckily the weather was kind and the eveing went well with, we think at one point, over 120 dancers on the floor for the dance the ‘Seige of Ennis’.
This dance is the Gay Gordons with Liz piping.
We did a ceilidh yesterday near York in a village hall in Sutton upon Derwent, a really lovely setting and atmosphere and we all very much enjoyed it as did the wedding guests.
Liz really “did one” on the bagpipes! – she played for half an hour, really enjoyable (not only because it meant most of the band had some time off) but she really gets into the spirit and gets everyone jollying up there. Quentin and Martin playing along on the djembe and darabouka made it hard for anyone not to clap along or dance!
Helen’s got some photo’s – will post them up soon.
We did a wedding last night for two friends Helen and Gordon, in fact the sister of Liz our whistle player, it was a great do. Eamon, the caller, really got the dancers going.
With it being, musically, a folky wedding, as both Helen and Gordon play, there was a session in the bar and a ceilidh in the next room, with guest spots in between dancing. Sam Pirt on accordion and Richard on violin fair motored along with some music, while the buffet was consumed, which was brilliant.
Heather and Hannah, Helen’s nieces, played the first dance on flute and cello, a waltz composed by John our accordion player, with John accompanying.
Then for the last dance along with the band, Sam, Richard, Bill, Anne, Carol, Laurie and the other session muscians (whose names escape me – sorry!), about 20 of us, played and everyone got up to dance! What a great end to the night.
Some of us have been composing since Christmas and we have some cracking tunes to rehearse this new year.
A few of the band braved the cold on January 13th to play at a Wassailing at Pickering Road Community Orchard for the Raving Maes to dance to.
It is the first wassailing held at the orchard – and it was a great sucess with around 70 people turning up to put toast on trees and pour cider on the roots of the young apple trees. Hopefully the first of many to come there.
Lots of bookings too and some possible studio time at Easter to record some tunes, what with playing for the Raving Maes as well it looks like 2008 is going to be a busy year for us.
Well, it was good fun and lots of people dancing, which is the main thing. We had 45 mins to set up before people arrived so it was a bit frantic but it all came together.
Quentin and John has a good go on the hurdy-gurdy and accordion, and friends Cameron and Mark did some piping and violin. Martin also joined us on persussion, along with Quentin. We all enjoyed ourselves and will have another ceilidh night next year in spring.
Mrs B’s excellent cafe’s website is now up and running.
We’ve been rehearsing for our Christmas Party on 23rd November which just involves a whole lot of playing and dancing (and rowdyness no doubt). There’s a 7/8 tune to dance to. I think the general consensus is that dancers will have to make this up themselves, with a bottle of wine prize for the most inventive dance moves – if we play this towards the end of the night maybe the odd rythyms won’t be noticed…
On Saturday 18th October 2008 there is a Big National Ceilidh Day to raise funds for Water Aid. We are having a ceilidh at Hessle Town Hall to raise funds.
At 10.00pm all bands across the UK will be playing the same tune, Jamie Allen, and as many people as possible dancing the Circassian Circle. Here are some sobering figures from the Big National Ceilidh Day’s website:
1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one sixth of the world’s population.
2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation. This is roughly two fifths of the world’s population.
1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day.
A few of us went to Les Panards Dansants yesterday which was part of a weekend of French Traditional Music and Dance in Otley, near Leeds. We have a ceilidh next May, in Hessle, which involves a weekend of people from Hessle’s twin town of Bourg de Thizy, France, visiting. So it would be nice to play them some French music and do some French dancing as well as traditional English music and dance.
We have been playing some French traditional music recently as two of the band members have houses in France and have books of french music which are really interesting to play. You can definitely hear the tunes that are perfect for hurdy-gurdy!
Busy weekend ahead for us…
Beverly Folk Festival, this Saturday 16th, sees most of us playing at some point for dance groups, the Green Ginger Garland and the Raving Maes (formaly the Raving Maenads), and Liz is bagpiping in a tent somewhere I think, no doubt we’ll hear where she is 🙂
Then on Sunday 17th playing at the Humber Bridge Cafe in the afternoon.
Fingers crossed for good weather!
The fiesty females of the Raving Maenads are dancing at the opening of the PF Conference at Hessle Town Hall, East Yorkshire, on Saturday 12th May at 10am with some members of the band playing for them.
Hessle Ceilidh Band 
